The English Unitarian minister, William Mountford (May 31, 1816 - April 20, 1885), lived for some time in the United States and died in Boston. More about him over the next couple of days. This from his sermon, "Quiet Work" which was printed in the "Monthly Religious Magazine" in 1850 and argues for the deep spiritual and moral value of doing our own work...
"1 Thessalonians iv. 11. Study to be quiet and to do your own business:
"It is our own business, we have to do ; and we ought not to be coveting another man's opportunities. Something especial, remarkable, some great thing, we should wish to do. But then it is not what God wants from us, if there is no opportunity for it allowed us. That our souls be great is what God wants ; for when they are so, then easily and always our actions will be. They will be great even when they are trifles. For in their littleness, they will be like diamonds. Let me be nobly minded ; and my two mites, if they are all I have to cast into the treasury of God, will show there, and will very likely spend further thence, than some famous achievements of princes...
Let us believe that we can be quiet; and yet by doing our own business in the right way, be martyrs and philanthropists, and patriots, and even like kings and priests unto God and the Father.
A man is really noble, only when his house is pervaded with the same spirit, as his two or three famous actions. It is the moral strength of a man, when he is quiet, that is his worth. The beauty of his holiness is in his common talk, in his temper when he gets up in the morning, in his reverence for a beggar, as being in the image of God, in his patience with trifles, and in the spirit which he does his daily business."
Time to go clean the garage...Have a great day and
Blessings
2 comments:
RE: "For in their littleness, they will be like diamonds."
Oh, how this reminds me ever so much of St. Therese of the Child Jesus, who is often called the "Little Flower" and whose "Little Way" was all about doing small things with great love.
I like St. Therese and made a small chaplet of 9 beads (8 small ones to pray the Doxology 24 times, the number of years she lived on earth, and one additional bead for the Our Father) but many people find St. Therese just a bit too saccharine sweet. However, not for nothing did she end up as one of the three female Doctors of the Church.
St. Therese, pray for us!
Blessings on this beautiful Friday
Hi Tracie,
I did not think of her when I posted this but you are quite right! May she pray for us indeed.
Blessings to you as well. BU
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